Colleague Rob Holmes wrote this article for World magazine published December 1, 2025: "A vision fulfilled: The ambitious plan to start translating the Bible into every language is nearly complete."
He wrote,
“More than almost any other human activity, it is the translation of the Bible that has fueled Christian mission and resulted in the expansion of the Church,” wrote R.J. Sim, a Scottish Bible translator in Ethiopia and longtime professor in Kenya...
One Chadian teammate, who initially worked only in literacy, made a profession of faith when God’s Word in the Psalms penetrated his heart. He buzzed with new motivation and became the key to making the translation sound beautiful and natural—with chette (“pepper”)—as he would say. He and a Chadian female colleague grew in their translation skills and learned Hebrew, becoming more responsible for the text’s accuracy. Their wording made the translation “acceptable” to readers, without obscuring the truth that inevitably causes offence to those without ears to hear. They also began to treat each other differently, in Christ, in a culture where men and women rarely stayed in the same room together....
Last century, sorting data on note cards in shoeboxes gave way to computers, causing an explosion in productivity and pacing. This century, artificial intelligence (AI) is the new game changer. About 500 languages are now using AI for drafting translation.
Before you start worrying that robots are churning out Scripture, consider that AI tools, like Scripture Forge, do some tasks flawlessly and more easily than a translation team. It reduces open quotes, missing or misnumbered verses, or unintended additions in a text. Languages with a New Testament can even use that corpus to produce a machine draft of Old Testament books for humans to glean from and improve their own translation: One Nigerian team I serve as a consultant found that Scripture Forge renderings in Deuteronomy sparked them to express their own wording better. And like a good German, AI gets grammar rules right every time, remembering to use an inclusive pronoun where the team forgot. AI tools still require trained people to ensure exegetical faithfulness....
In August, the official tally from Vision 2025’s (current) alliance of over 100 partner Bible agencies shows only 544 of the world’s 7,396 living languages still need translation work to begin! About 300 of these are sign languages. Many of those that remain will have an Oral Bible Translation. Major Scripture organizations remain committed to making “God’s Word accessible to all people by 2033.”
“Latest statistics suggest there is some form of translation or Scripture Engagement work going on in 4,457 languages,” British linguist Peter Brassington shared recently in a consultant forum.
My own Bible agency’s vision is galvanizing me afresh: ASAP—All Scripture, All People. This year some of us started learning American Sign Language, in hopes of branching out to one day serve deaf translation teams.
No comments:
Post a Comment